Definitions for plumbagoplʌmˈbeɪ goʊ

This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word plumbago

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:(0.00 / 0 votes)

graphite, black lead, plumbago(noun)

used as a lubricant and as a moderator in nuclear reactors

plumbago(noun)

any plumbaginaceous plant of the genus Plumbago

WiktionaryRate this definition:(0.00 / 0 votes)

plumbago(Noun)

graphite

plumbago(Noun)

leadwort

Origin: From plumbago, from plumbum.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:(0.00 / 0 votes)

Plumbago(noun)

same as Graphite

Plumbago(noun)

a genus of herbaceous plants with pretty salver-shaped corollas, usually blue or violet; leadwort

Origin: [L., from plumbum lead.]

FreebaseRate this definition:(0.00 / 0 votes)

Plumbago

Plumbago is a genus of 10-20 species of flowering plants in the family Plumbaginaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the world. Common names include plumbago and leadwort. The generic name, derived from the Latin words plumbum and agere, was first used by Pliny the Elder for a plant known as μολυβδαινα to Pedanius Dioscorides. This may have referred to its lead-blue flower colour, the ability of the sap to create lead-colored stains on skin, or Pliny's belief that the plant was a cure for lead poisoning.
The species include herbaceous plants and shrubs growing to 0.5–2 m tall. The leaves are spirally arranged, simple, entire, 0.5–12 cm long, with a tapered base and often with a hairy margin. The flowers are white, blue, purple, red, or pink, with a tubular corolla with five petal-like lobes; they are produced in racemes.
The flower calyx has glandular trichomes, which secrete a sticky mucilage that is capable of trapping and killing insects; it is unclear what the purpose of these trichomes is; protection from pollination by way of "crawlers", or possible protocarnivory.

Soft lustrous graphite, a native form of carbon; sometimes chemically purified. It is used in electro-plating to give a conducting surface to non-conducting objects, such as wax moulds. The surface, after coating with plumbago, is sometimes dusted over with iron dust, which precipitates the metal of the bath and starts the plating. It is sometimes plated with copper, silver or gold, and is then termed coppered, silvered, or gilt plumbago. It is gilded by moistening with etherial solution of gold chloride and exposing to the air, and drying and igniting.